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Emotional Intelligence, Diversity, and Organizational Performance:

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Article

Emotional Intelligence, Diversity, Jindal Journal of Business Research

3(1&2) 1–12
and Organizational Performance: © 2016 O.P. Jindal Global University
SAGE Publications
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DOI: 10.1177/2278682115627240
for an Emerging Field http://jjbr.sagepub.com

Umamaheswararao Jada1
Lalatendu Kesari Jena2
Ranjan Pattnaik3

Abstract
Twenty-first-century organizations are expanding its business across globe to cater varied needs of
society and in this process different people join such organizations from various walks of life giving rise to
a diverse workforce. It is presumed that organizations having varied people with creative and problem-
solving skills will create competitive advantage for organizations. However, it is pertinent to mention
here that these people belong to different locations and different cultures and may have differences
in values, language, behaviors, preferences, and norms which may lead to friction/complications with
other people. In spite of such differences, they are expected to work as a cohesive team to achieve
desired performance of the organization. However, at the same time it is observed across industries
that there are certain unknown impediments which lead toward disengagement at workplace, resulting
into high employee turnover, and consequent poor performance of organization. Several scholarly
studies in this context have been carried out to understand and minimize the complexity based on
different inferences. Many positive psychologists apprehend that understanding and appreciating the
emotions of other person will give the organizations a rational upshot in terms of managing diversity at
workplace. Taking their cognizance we hypothesize that if organizations are able to hire the employees
with good emotional intelligence (EI) skills, it would be helpful for smooth functioning of team or
else the employed personnel should be trained properly in EI to accept challenges during work force
diversity. Therefore, this conceptual review is going to critically examine the behavioral patterns of
workforce, organizational interventions, and leadership challenges to address them in the context of
diversity at workplace.

Keywords
Globalization, diversity, organizational policies, emotional intelligence, management practices

1
Vinod Gupta School of Management, Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur, India.
Email: mahesh.jada786@gmail.com
2
Department of Humanities and Social Sciences,Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur, India.
Email: lkjena@iitkgp.ac.in
3
Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur, India.
Email: dr.ranjanpattnaik@gmail.com

Corresponding author:
2 Jindal Journal of Business Research 3(1&2)

Introduction
Workplace diversity is getting attention of scholars across the globe in recent years as it happens to be
the lifeblood of every organization. In contemporary times, business organizations are going global to
spread its presence through diversity to maximize its revenues. In order to sustain an influential leader-
ship position in the competitive market, HR teams of MNCs are inviting people from different cultures
and locations to be a part of diversified workforce. The term diversity may sound simple but it is a comb-
ination of holding and managing the aspirations of people from different cultures, race, gender, age,
skill, cognitive style, group, education, background etc. (Kenely, 2000; Perry, 1997). Therefore, diversity
brings significant challenges to the organization and HR functionaries are expected to play a vital role in
handling issues pertaining to individual differences arising out of diversity (Shen, Chanda, D’Netto, &
Monga, 2009). Michael Armstrong (2006) has added that in order to support HR functionaries line mana-
gers are equally expected to join their hands in handling such heterogeneous and diversified workforce.
To confront this kind of challenges, understanding and appreciating each individual’s emotions is of
paramount in work settings (Goleman, 1995).
It is assumed that to manage the emotions of a diversified workforce a professional irrespective of
position and hierarchy need to be emotionally intelligent (Zeidner, Matthews, & Roberts, 2004). In this
connection, studies have found that line managers with sound emotional intelligence (EI) skills encour-
age the workforce in the organization to create healthy environment such that organization can prosper
and be able to withstand the competition in the global market (James, 2008; Maznevski, 1994; Richard,
2000). This conceptual review is an attempt to understand the behavioral dynamics influencing diversity
and its presence and importance in the organization. It is also trying to explain the role of EI in managing
a diverse workforce.

Workplace Diversity
Diversity at workplace is differences in people and is generally defined as acknowledging, understand-
ing, accepting, valuing, and celebrating differences among people with respect to age, class, ethnicity,
gender, physical and mental ability, race, sexual orientation, spiritual practice, and public assistance
(Esty, Griffin, & Schorr-Hirsh, 1995). Further, it is also defined that diversity as an aggregate team-level
construct represents differences among members of an interdependent work group with respect to a
specific personal attribute (Jackson, Joshi, & Erhardt, 2003). Many managers and scholars agree that
diversity is a positive factor in organizations (Bergen, Soper, & Parnell, 2005; Schermerhorn, Hunt, &
Osborn, 1998) as they seek diversity as a way of increasing business competency (Diversity Inc., 2002)
while offering value addition through gathering various creative thoughts (Ahmed, 2007). Diversity
provides a distinct advantage in an era when flexibility and creativity are keys to competitiveness.
An organization needs to be flexible and adaptable to meet new customer needs. Heterogeneity pro-
motes creativity and heterogeneous groups have been shown to produce better solutions to problems and
a higher level of critical analysis (James, 2008). This can be a vital asset at a time when the organization
is undergoing tremendous change and self-examination to find new and more effective ways to operate.
Diversity improves the bottom line, provides competitive advantage, builds the ability to compete in
global markets, and improves business performance for achieving higher employee satisfaction, enhanc-
ing relationships with multicultural communities, attracting multiple talents and skills and maintaining a
workforce that mirrors the customer base (McCuiston, Ross Wooldridge, & Pierce, 2004).
Jada et al. 3

In short, workplace diversity is a people issue, focusing on the differences and similarities that people
bring to an organization (Hackman et al., 2000). Though diversity is a broad aspect but it can be divided
into two major dimensions: primary dimension and secondary dimension. Primary dimensions are those
factors that are either inborn or exert extraordinary influence on early socialization (e.g., age, gender,
race, ethnicity, physical and mental abilities, and sexual orientation). Whereas the secondary dimensions
are the factors related to individuals and some extent to others with whom individual is closely related
with and they are in the form of (e.g., educational background, geographical location, income, marital
status, parent status, religious beliefs, work experience etc.).
Globalization crafts workforce diversity in organization; however, it is a kind of blessing as well as
curse depending on management style of an organization (Ashkanasy, Hartel & Daus, 2002). This is
because it provides expertise in terms of process, production, and profitability (3P)—thus enriching the
human and social capital which contributes to organizational performance. On the other hand, in contem-
porary times, managing a heterogeneous workforce stands as the real challenge for HR functionaries as
various behavioral dynamics like trust–mistrust, conflict–collaboration; sharing–withholding sabotage
etc. get involved. For this detailed understanding of the different dimensions of diversity and its associ-
ated behavioral patterns is warranted.

Behavioral Patterns of Diverse Workforce

As far as factors affecting workforce diversity is concerned, mainly we need to focus on both internal and
external factors. External factors on behavioral dimensions are predominantly get influenced by family,
reference group, social class, subculture, culture, and geographical boundary. However, these factors are
uncontrollable and hence managing them is quite hard. Therefore, necessary emphasis needs to be given
on internal psychological factors which lead to molding the behavioral patterns of diverse workforce.
Human being is the most complex creature of nature and is impossible to predict because of its unique
psychological factors. Here we would like to explain some of the important psychological factors those
are responsible for augmenting workforce diversity in an organization. Primarily, during our inter-
action with senior management functionaries of Indian MNCs we found that motivation, personality,
perception, values, adaptability, attitude, commitment, job satisfaction, and rational thinking are some
of the major key factors. Therefore, we have tried to analyze each of these factors in detail:

• Motivation: Motivation is the process that arouses, energizes, directs, and sustains behavior and
performance (Luthans, 1998). It is argued by practitioners, people working with diverse work-
force tend to have different levels of motivation. According to Rosa Schmidt of the Rutgers
University Centre for Management Development, Millennial, born between 1980 and 2000, have
a sense of belongingness to civic duty orientation, achievement orientation, and able to handle
multiple tasks at a time. Members of Generation X, born between 1960 and 1980, have a curiosity
to learn continuously for the personal growth and organizational growth as well and always look
for challenging assignments. Baby Boomers, born between 1943 and 1960, look for appreciations
from the others for whatever they contribute. Those born between 1922 and 1943 try to keep their
hard efforts in every task and who gives due respect to authority. It is important that managers of
present day diversified organizations catering the need to understand the needs and priorities of
each type of employee and understand what motivates them (Kupperschmidt, 2000).
• Attitude: Attitude is basically a positive or negative feeling one have on objects, people, or events.
At the same time, people have a kind of unawareness on their unconscious attitudes because they
4 Jindal Journal of Business Research 3(1&2)

carry repressed feelings to certain external aspects of diversity as they are unable to verbalize
and communicate with it properly (Mohammed & Angell, 2004). By recruiting employees who
will be responsive to organizational practices in their conscious and unconscious note and by
transmitting the significance of prevailing values in one hand, and dismissing those who do not fit
through their attitude in the other organizations can hope to establish a robust and stable attachment
among members.
• Moral and ethical values: It can be defined as “concepts or beliefs about desirable end states or
behaviors that transcend specific situations, guide selection or evaluation of behavior and events,
and are ordered by relative importance” (Schwartz & Bilsky, 1987). Every individual will have
their own moral values which can guide him/her as their code of conduct and while working with
a team it gets affected by others leading to questioning their own moral values. However, a diverse
workforce with an optimal intelligence with them is able to understand others beliefs, values, and
at the same time they can respect their moral and ethical values.
• Perception: Employee in diverse workforce perceives that there would be lots of consequences while
different people join together and share their ideas in a work setup, resulting to un-comfortableness
and insecurity (Triandis, Kurowski, & Gelfand, 1994). But while hiring people, if the organization
considers EI as an imperative competency and based on the criteria if they select workforce it
would be easy to change their perception toward diversity and cope up with team members.
• Adaptability: Survival of the employees in changing market condition and business processes a
bit crucial when they are not adaptable/flexible to the organization policies and culture. Therefore,
when an organization is inviting people with different cultures, locations will get excited to join
together, but employees with flexible/adaptable patterns in them only can highly endurable toward
changes happening in the organization (Colarelli, Roger & Constantine, 1987; Wilson, & Iles,
1999). It has been presumed that employees trained with EI can be more flexible/adaptable and
create the competitive edge to the company. Employees with high EI likely to deal people effec-
tively and can be flexible to the changes in the organization.
• Personality: According to Kinicki (2008), personality represents a stable set of characteristics that
are responsible for a person’s identity. There are different personalities exist such as extroversion,
introversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, emotional stability, and openness to experience
(Goldberg, 1993). When heterogeneous teams are joined together for fulfilling the common objec-
tive different personalities influences its teams. Therefore, to understand the role of each personal-
ity by every individual professional is important in organization as it shows that how people are
expected to behave and work. In order to hold the different personalities at work, people should
possess the emotional skills.
• Commitment: The state of being dedicated to a cause, and commitment as a state of being in
which an individual becomes bound by his actions and it is these actions that sustain one’s activi-
ties and involvement (Salancik, 1977). In a diverse workforce committed employees are the value
addition to organization as they are devoted toward organization they will try to encourage others
to get involved. Interestingly, several empirical studies found positive relationship between EI
and commitment (Adeyemo, 2007; Jordan, Ashkanasy, & Hartel, 2002; Humphreys, Brunsen, &
Davis, 2005). Hence it is understood that people with high EI tends to committed toward organi-
zational goals.
• Job satisfaction: Satisfaction arises when an individual’s job fulfills his expectations, standards,
and values. Locke (1969) has defined job satisfaction as a “complex emotional reactions to the
job,” whereas Smith et al. (1969) have conceptualized job satisfaction as “feeling or affective
responses to facets of the situation.” In addition, job satisfaction is often considered as a proxy for
Jada et al. 5

an employee’s well-being at work (Grandey, 2000). Still it is debatable among researchers and
practitioners that, does diversity shows impact on job satisfaction of employees? It is presumed
that people who are able to manage their emotional and social interactions at diverse workforce
setups effectively are more satisfied than others.
• Rational thinking: Rationality is thinking before acting as rational thinkers take decisions on the
basis of objective and profitability, whereas emotional thinkers consider subjective factors as an
important ingredient for judgment (Markič, 2009). Because of rational thinking there are two
types of group that gets emerged in an organization, masculinity and feminist. Masculinity group
concern more about rational decision making and objective fulfillment but feminists are more
concerned about care emotions and subjective behavior. These two factors form a kind of work-
force diversity which creates challenge for HR functionaries because a balanced thinking of
rationality as well as emotions is necessary to manage workforce diversity.

Research Gap
While in the past many organizations addressed the issue of diversity from the standpoint of compliance,
in recent years there has been a shift in focus from diversity to inclusion. Inclusion is a kind of work
environment in which all individuals are treated fairly and respectfully, have equal access to opportuni-
ties and resources, and can contribute fully to the organization’s success (Lopez, 2006). Whereas social
identity theory is a theory developed to understand the psychological basis of discrimination that
augments inclusion in an organization. However, during this process people with same category gets
a feel belongingness and forms group’s called in-group, and there are people feel uncomfortable with
the in-group and they stand out of the group creating an out-group. This stands as a challenge and to
address this kind of sensitive issue which is primarily related with behavioral factors and psychological
factors individuals are expected to be emotional intelligent. Therefore, we have felt to conceptualize the
situation as the organization’s values and creating a person–organization fit through EI will become a
meaningful intervention in the area of behavioral and management science.

Dimensions of Emotional Intelligence and Its Influence

in Diversified Environment
Previously emotions were ignored while studying organization behavior but latter on it was found that
employee’s emotions are playing significant role in the organization. Therefore the term of “emotional
intelligence” discovered by Salovey and Mayer (1990) has defined as a type of intelligence that provides
capabilities to control or monitor others feeling as well as employee emotions. This facilitates the infor-
mation gathered in order to guide one’s thinking and action. Therefore, EI is involved in the capacity to
perceive emotions, assimilate emotion-related feelings, understand the information of those emotions,
and manage them. It is often measured as EI quotient (EQ) which includes the ability to perceive emo-
tions, to access and generate emotion so as to assist thought, to understand emotions and emotional
knowledge and to reflectively regulate emotions so as to promote emotional and intellectual growth.
It has also been proved that while IQ does not increase beyond adolescence, emotional quotient can be
developed throughout life since it is largely learned (Goleman, 1996).
6 Jindal Journal of Business Research 3(1&2)

Lack of EI use to open door to conflicts in the organization whereas organizations catering diverse
workforce when a single conflict arises and if it cannot be controlled instantaneously number of other
consequence will add up (Fleishman, & Harris, 1962). In order to control impact of conflicts on organi-
zation, manager or leader should be focused in handling and it can be possible when a leader is having
good EI skills (Ayoko, Callan, & Hartel, 2008). EI skills have been divided into four categories: self-
awareness, self-management, social awareness, and relationship management (Salovey, Woolery, &
Mayer, 2001).

• Self-awareness: When strong negative emotions are triggered, the limbic system within the brain
is activated, obstructing functions of the brain and putting the individual in a potentially volatile,
reactive state. High EQ people working in a diversified organization recognize this and learn to
neutralize their internal, automatic reactions. They proceed with caution, keeping their reactions
in check. Low EQ people, on the other hand, get externally focused on the person or situation
due to which the problem has been caused and allow their reactions to hijack their behavior.
Recognizing and identifying one’s own reactions is first set and is essential for enabling self-
management skills.
• Self-management: Self-management is the skill set that enables one to exert conscious control
over one’s behavior in a situation where the reactions could sabotage the outcome that one want
to achieve. In a diversified environment, high EQ people have the ability to explore possible
strategies to achieve whatever outcome they want.
• Social awareness: Low EQ people tend to make false assumptions in the heat of emotion. They
often assume that there is a negative intent behind the behavior of others. On the other hand,
high EQ people turn it to others and are capable of establishing empathy and look for positive
intentions behind negative behavior.
• Relationship management: In a diversified environment low EQ people often lose their patience
when they get to be emotionally charged up (Gowing, 2001). They are likely to react in the heat
of the moment, with destructive behavior that undermines their future relationship with that
person. High EQ people remain aware of the fact that how they interact in the present time is going
to determine the relationships in the future.

Organizational Interventions for Managing Diversity and Nurturing EI

In order to keep the employees engaged in diverse teams, organizations should focus on developing
EI among individuals by providing trainings and conducting awareness camps on EI and its advantages
(Carmeli, 2003). These are the three major aspects in handling diversity, and nurturing EI skills plays
a major role and they are in the form of:

1. Organizational policies
An organization’s commitment to diversity is reflected in the extent to which diversity poli-
cies and procedures are mutually understood and communicated (Cox, 2001). Nevertheless,
diversity issues including short- and long-term agency concerns are rarely discussed in any
consistent fashion (Allison, 1999). Diversity policies are expected to be in alignment with organ-
izational mission and vision. Numerous organizations have recognized and attempted to respond
effectively to the demographic shifts in the workforce by launching diversity initiatives, hiring
Jada et al. 7

diversity consultants, and offering an array of diversity training programs (Boyatzis, Stubbs,
& Taylor, 2002; Kalev, Kelly, & Dobbin, 2006). The organizational policies need to be enabled
through:
• Developing leadership: A leader is the person who influences the people around. Today’s
workplace and global economy requires emerging and established leaders to work effectively
with people from broad and diverse backgrounds. It requires individuals who understand
international customer and client needs, as well as, the needs of a multicultural workforce.
Being able to work in an ever-expanding marketplace requires a different set of skills and
knowledge. Leaders are now expected to move seamlessly across organizations and success-
fully work with people with diverse expectations. This ability to transcend one’s own frame
of reference and cultural preferences is called “trans-cultural competency.” Trans-cultural
competency requires individuals to understand cultural differences, to know how to with-
hold judgment, develop a deeper understanding of the differences, and to facilitate mutually
acceptable solutions. Similarly, if the organization is able develop the leaders with good EI
skills, diversity can be handled properly and the employees may develop sense of belonging-
ness toward each other and organization as well (Pauchant, 2005; Zhang, & Bartol, 2010).
• Creating an affable culture: Culture is the face of any organization to external world.
Organizational culture plays an important role to attract heterogeneous pool of talent in
organization. Indeed it is essential role of management to understand the various cultural
backgrounds of different locations, countries while designing policies. Sackmann and Friesl
(2007) found that members of same cultures restrict the communication themselves rather
they are not willing to disclose group members because of psychological factors. Line mana-
gers and HR managers need to ensure that safe working place and fairness in treating diverse
workforce and develop a culture of respecting each other.
• Reengineering: Business process reengineering primarily deals with modifications in struc-
tures and in processes within the business situations to be adaptable and abreast with techno-
logy and competition. It is a systematic review of the business process of an organization to
develop sustainable competitive edge. When an organization deals with diverse work force
to understand the people from various locations or from various backgrounds, the process
should be designed in such a way that employees’ difference should be considered. Such
practices will give raise to sense of belongingness to understand each other.
2. Management practices
Managing diversity means acknowledging people’s differences and recognizing these differ-
ences as valuable; it enhances good management practices by preventing discrimination and
promoting inclusiveness (Van Der Vegt, & Bunderson, 2005). Good management alone will not
necessarily help you work effectively with a diverse workforce (Weigand, 2007). It is often dif-
ficult to see what part diversity plays in a specific area of management. Diversity initiatives
depend on the working philosophy of individual staff. However, there is lack of information to
staff from the leadership. This creates a gap between whom we think we are serving, whom we
would like to serve, and who will really serve. The following management practices can prove to
be of help for augmenting diversity management:
• Executive training: Organizations can provide training to its top level management to develop
the emotional skills because when top level management is emotionally intelligent as a top
down approach it will direct bottom level employees to be tactical in handling people when
diverse workforce working together (Sanchez & Medkik, 2004).
8 Jindal Journal of Business Research 3(1&2)

• Strengthen communication: People with high EI typically have excellent communication

skills. This is because they have developed better communication through understanding
the body language of people around. Good communication also means knowing how to deal
with negative emotions. One simple strategy over here is giving required scope for “venting”
negative emotions—or frustrations about setbacks—in a constructive way. For example, if
people are upset, set aside five minutes of each meeting for complaints and frustrations, and
let the team know that their criticisms won’t be frowned upon. The facilitator can keep this
light hearted by using a stopwatch; when five minutes are up, then the team members should
move on and focus on an action item, or something that they can control. It is worth to create
fun ways to acknowledge and deal with stress or tension. Another important and often over-
looked communication tool is listening. Being a leader it is expected that he/she need to teach
everyone of team to use active listening skills, and to respect other people when they are
speaking. When people are obviously not listening, call them out on their behavior. Last,
if one thinks that the group does not discuss and analyze decisions fully, make sure that
they question decisions and avoid groupthink. It is better to play devil’s advocate and force
a discussion about the issue at hand. Ask why everyone is agreeing, and, again, encourage
quieter team members to speak up.
• Encourage healthy conflict: People with high EI know how to engage in conflict in a healthy
way, where everyone’s perspective is respected when they communicate their views. This
type of conflict can strengthen people individually and within a group, and can lead to per-
sonal growth (Robinson & Creighton, 1998). Teach your people good conflict resolution
skills. Make it clear that conflicts should never get personal, and that whoever “has the floor”
gets the full attention of everyone else in the room. Set ground rules, so that everyone knows
what is and is not fair behavior.
• Set specific learning goals: Goal setting is found to be one of the most effective organiza-
tional interventions that can be used to increase employee performance and to align employee
behavior to a unique direction (O’hora & Maglieri, 2006). Your team members will have dif-
ferent strengths and weaknesses when it comes to their own EI. For example, some people
might be poor communicators, others might have little self-awareness, and some might be
lacking in empathy. First, help each person discover their strengths and weaknesses. One can
do this by performing a personal SWOT analysis (El-Said, 2013). It may be necessary to
provide extra support and guidance for team members with low EI, as they may have low
self-reflection.
Next, set clear, specific goals to help each person work on their weaknesses. For example, one
person might be a poor listener, so his goal could be to use active listening techniques four times
per week for the next four weeks. Personalized goals like this will keep each person motivated.
3. Perceived inequity
Most of the organizations welcoming diverse workforce into organizations to create a pool of
most efficient talent, at the same time it is observed that there are very less opportunities for
women and minorities. Argyris (2003) has found that it is not remarkable for managers to feel
like to clone themselves; to hire people who resemble them in working style and approach at
workplace. This organizational cloning makes not only provides increased comfort levels with
co-workers but also allows one to cultivate sense of continuity in the agency steady with the
existing management culture (Cox, & Blake, 1991). Consequently, Allison (1999) found that
these practices get to be harmful to diversity goals and limits the ability of the organization to
Jada et al. 9

become increasingly inclusive. Selecting or hiring employees based on the rule “he is color of
me” become the basis for the loss of a huge talent pool from organization.
• Build optimism: The ability to think positively is an important part of EI. You can help your
people think positively by stopping self-sabotaging behavior or statements. For instance, if
you hear someone say “I’m not very good at writing reports,” or “I’ll never be able to make a
presentation in front of the group!” remind them of their strengths and thank them for the
good work that they are doing. Keep in mind that positive thinking does not mean ignoring
bad news and avoiding issues. It means acknowledging bad news and rationally deciding how
to handle it, as well as searching for the good in each situation and learning from every
mistake.
• Social architecture: Social architecture is the conscious design of an environment that
encourages a desired range of social behaviors leading toward some goal or set of goals.
Organizations should encourage social architecture; as it stands as the idea toward bridging
the social relationship between individuals in order to create sound interactions among each
other (Hickman, & Creighton-Zollar, 1998). It is believed that proper design of these bridges
will lead organization’s common goal which leads to organizational performance as a whole.
People who are good at EI skills can maintain more relations and flexible in managing change.

Managerial Implications
Diversity is a certainty in today’s business workplaces. To be successful in working with and gaining
value from this diversity requires a sustained, systemic approach and long-term commitment. Success is
facilitated by a perspective that considers diversity to be an opportunity for everyone in an organization
to learn from each other how better to accomplish their work and an occasion that requires a supportive
and cooperative organizational culture as well as group leadership and process skills that can facili-
tate effective group functioning. Organizations that invest their resources in taking advantage of the
opportunities that diversity offers should outperform those that fail to make such investments.
Human resource professionals, line managers, and in-charges of diversity management practices
should consider analytical approaches while handling issues. Gathering adequate data and using robust
statistical tools to analyze data are needed to appreciate the outcomes of diversity within organizations.
Currently, organizations typically assess their diversity efforts by simply comparing attitudes, perfor-
mance, advancement, pay, and so on, among different groups of employees. These comparisons can be
useful, but they are only a first step. Equally important but very different questions are: Under what
conditions do work units that are diverse with respect to gender or race outperform or underperform
work units that are more homogeneous? What conditions mitigate or exacerbate diversity’s potential
negative or positive effects.

Conclusion and Scope for Future Research

Diversity in workplace is bringing heterogeneous workforce into the organization. Diversity brings high
value to organization, competitive advantage, and increasing productivity. But all these favorable results
are obtained on the cost of employees’ dissatisfaction, grievance, conflict, and complex working condi-
tion. Due to changes in the demographics and challenges in the market, organizations cannot resist the
10 Jindal Journal of Business Research 3(1&2)

diversity. The only thing that manager can do is operate in balanced manner to reduce its consequences
and optimize its benefits.
EI is the key weapon in the hand of manager to deal with diversity in significant manner. Individuals,
HR team, line managers with good EI skills can keep the organization healthy by contributing
substantially. It has been extensively discussed that role of EI and its advantages in diverse work force.
Contribution of this article gives insights to future researchers to test the concept empirically. Since
the behavioral patterns of workforce changing day by day, it is presumed that in future scholars can
concentrate on other aspects of behavioral sciences like psychology, cognition, psychological contract
etc. Similarly, researchers can examine the learning and career growth potentials of employees under
diverse circumstances.

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